Ethics? What ethics?

While much has been said about Facebook and its attempts, you have to question the ethics of the PR business involved. What was it thinking? You would have thought that the owners, or at least the senior account management team, would have looked at the request and immediately turned it down.

And here's why:

• The relationship that the PR has with journalist is forever ruined.
  
• The PR will have a hard time pitching anything at the journalist or any other journalist, for that matter, without some doubt about integrity.
  
• The reputational damage to the agency will come to the fore when its more ethical clients see this attempt as unethical business practice and sever the business relationship

When will agencies begin to look at their own businesses in the same way that they should be counselling their clients?

How can we - as an industry - expect to be taken seriously when there are agencies out their practicing the dark side of our art?

And why do we take on business or projects that shouldn't be touched with the proverbial barge-poll?

Sometimes turning away business is better for your business in the long run...

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